Ray

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Thank you all so very much for the compliments and encouragement!
 
The hull has been primed and is nearly ready for paint and further detailing. The red has been smoothed and the black will be shortly. The red is Krylon brand rattle-can "Red Oxide", a dead ringer for US Navy 121 red oxide, and will not be painted further, just mildly weathered. The portholes on the hull will be re-drilled using a pin vise since the primer has partially filled them.   Straking detail is visible in the photos.   The flight deck (and funnel and conning tower) has merely been placed onto the hull for photo purposes. When the boat bays and AA sponsons are complete, the flight deck will be cemented to the hull. To ensure that the surface of the flight deck is perfectly flat, it will be fixed inverted to a flat surface then the inverted hull will be placed down onto it and shimmed where necessary. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that the hull will be fixed to the flight deck. ------------ Starboard side. The bottom edge of the black primer will form the boot topping. Late in life, the starboard side of the ship received a large stability blister, visible here on the model.  Photos of the ship indicate that the plating of the starboard stability blister was all butt-welded, unlike the rest of the ship, which was riveted when built. Therefore, the blister is very smooth compared with the rest of the hull, which is straked. The starboard side of the ship lost its original bilge keel when the stability blister was added.      Port side.  Bilge keel is visible.  Plating pattern around the bilge keel is consistent with photos as is the slight variation in porthole height just aft of the nearest boat bay.  The watertight hatch visible in the side of the hull was common to both Saratoga and Lexington.  Through this hatch on Lexington, electrical cabling was passed supplying electricity to the city of Tacoma, WA for a month beginning in December, 1929.  Notice also that the portholes inside the boat bay are much larger than those on the hull's shell plating.  This is consistent with plans and photos.     The model's engineering vents are all open. They need some minor cleanup but otherwise are done.     The real ship was built with tracks to move floatplanes on carriages around the flight deck.  The floatplane tracks are visible on the model's flight deck. Photos of the real ship indicate that the tracks originally featured a centerline slot but by 1944 the ship no longer carried floatplanes so the tracks were no longer necessary and the slot was eliminated.  Thus, the model's tracks are solid.     This is the radar platform on the foremast.     Best wishes! Steve

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Beautiful work Ray. She looks magnificent.

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Lower stun sail booms
One other outstanding job was to make and add the lower stun sail booms, the plans and instructions are rather sketchy on these, so a look at the box photos sorted out the main mast ones,but it does not show them fitted to the fore mast but they must have been fitted and a look in R P S M shows them hooked into the hull,the kit supplies enough brackets for four booms so I just lined up the fore mast ones with the yard, and added them the same as the main mast one.

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Gaff & Booms
Time to add the Spanker boom and the Gaff boom,again the supplied rigging drawings are sketchy and difficult to follow,so I decided to rig the booms as per L Petersons R P S M which is my rigging bible I highly recommend this book which can be  purchased for around £25.The booms are now both rigged and the last of the braces which rig into the booms have also been added. One thing that will to be attended to is re-tensioning some of the rigging, but I will do this when the rigging is completed,the only rigging remaining are the tac sheets,and then just the dummy rope coils and a few odds and ends.
Next job ships boats or the stand.





Diana as she is now starting to look the real deal



 

Greetings all
Firstly thanks for all your comments. OK I have followed advice concerning the rough edges of the maple. I have laid a few strips to see how the deck might look with blackened edging on the strips, which I am not happy with. I was using marker pen which was a rubbish choice. The photo I have posted is the best area, I dare not show you the area behind it. !!! . I will order a few of the pens Ray used and see how it's goes with them. I decided to cut the strips into lengths of 160mm and just lay a simple shift system, and later have a go fitting that four strake planking, but there's no way it will be fitted along the full length of the deck, it will stop were its not seen. OK what do you think of my new chopper!! It's a tool which I am told is used or was used in the printing trade for cutting Leads and Rules Which is indicated on two areas of the tool. Maybe one of you chaps can enlighten me and others.what leads and rules are. Anyway I borrowed it off a friend and it cuts like a dream. I don't reckon there's many of these about !!. Here's a few photos and I shall return later with my deck sorted. Thanks a lot chaps. DAVID

ASROC Deck
 
Added the stacks, ASROC Launcher, control station and various vents and lockers:




 
The railings will be added after the motor whaleboat and davits are installed.
Next up will probably be the flight deck nets.

Great start! And I also had the same experience with planks on my Diana. I would group them into best to worst and found I had enough with left over planks by using the worst planks for cutoffs in smaller areas. I'm tempted to build another Diana as I sold my last model. I painted friezes and made up my own sculptures as I didn't like the PE stuff to make her a little different. I don't have many pics left of her. I had a build log on the original forum, yet when it crashed I lost it and most of my build photos. But here's a couple.

Hi David they are about the same as I had, I made a sanding jig a pinned down piece of sandpaper and two wooded 1mm x5mm also pinned down with a gap so you can just slide the planking up and down you can then get a workable edge, and with the plank edges black marked they look good when laided.

DASH Hanger
 
The remaining details added to the hanger include life rafts, railings. ladders. a pipe rack, floodlights, loudspeakers, night illumination lights and an electrical power cable reel:





 
Next up will be the forward stack and nearby lockers.

Braces
The braces were rigged next the fore main braces were rigged as per Pegasus and R P S M which runs through blocks fixed the the rear of the top not blocks around the lower mast. The rest of the braces other than those from the mizzen rigged to the gaff have also been added.







 

The main and mizzen top masts are now in place, and have all their shrouds and ratlines added, phew, I am glad they are all finished and that I split it up this way, as it did make the ratlines a lot less tedious to tie,I will now most likely add as much of the standing rigging that I can before fitting the tagallants masts.
I have also included some photos of Diana with Pegasus and The lady Nelson.
 
Firstly a lower fold down table I used to bring the rigging to a better level to work at

 
Main and mizzen masts



Completed ratlines



 
 
Some photos of Diana with Pegasus And some with The Lady Nelson as well

Braces
The braces were rigged next the fore main braces were rigged as per Pegasus and R P S M which runs through blocks fixed the the rear of the top not blocks around the lower mast. The rest of the braces other than those from the mizzen rigged to the gaff have also been added.







 

Braces
The braces were rigged next the fore main braces were rigged as per Pegasus and R P S M which runs through blocks fixed the the rear of the top not blocks around the lower mast. The rest of the braces other than those from the mizzen rigged to the gaff have also been added.